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"Analysing the depth of the tsunami deposit can tell us whether that postulated asteroid impact in the Atlantic ocean was a reality."

Tsunamis are destructive fast-moving waves that can be triggered by earthquakes, mountain slides, or meteor impacts.

In 1755, the Lisbon earthquake caused a three-metre (9.8ft) tsunami that struck the coast of Cornwall with "great loss of life and property" according to 19th-century French writer Arnold Boscowitz.

Dr Teasdale, who spoke about his theory at the British Science Festival in Brighton, pointed out that since water covers 70% of the Earth's surface, asteroids were more likely to strike the ocean than land.

An excerpt from the Anglo Saxon Chronicles dated 1014 reads: "This year, on the eve of St Michael's day, came the great sea-flood, which spread wide over this land, and ran so far up as it never did before, overwhelming many towns and an innumerable multitude of people."

Twelfth-century English historian William of Malmesbury also talks of the catastrophe, describing a "tidal wave" of "astonishing size such as the memory of man cannot parallel, so as to submerge villages many miles inland and overwhelm and drown their inhabitants".